Olympics Medals and Tickets Online

Travelers to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics should realize that they will need approved travel documents to enter the United States.

On February 12, 2010 the world will focus its attention on Vancouver for the 21st Winter Olympic Games. The presence of the Olympics just across the U.S.-Canadian border has enormous implications for cross-border travel and reentry into the United States by its citizens. In essence, if youre traveling to the Winter Games by land or sea, youre going to need approved travel documents to get back home,” explained Jim Learned, president and managing director of the agency. The campaign encourages travelers to visit the GetYouHome.gov (http://getyouhome.gov/) website in order to learn about travel document options that will best meet their needs.

The Winter Olympics are the third most popular sporting event in the world involving thousands of athletes, officials and spectators from more than 80 countries. Whatcom Council of Governments (WCOG), a federally designated regional metropolitan planning organization, estimates the total number of attendees for the 2010 Winter Games to be at 525,000 people; of which almost 150,000 would be traveling northbound across the U.S-Canadian border.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative has been in full effect less than 9 months, so this will be a major test for basic compliance of the new WHTI requirements,” Learned said. When WHTI went into effect in June 2009, ports reported an average of 93% compliance during the first week of implementation. High compliance rates were attributed to the WHTI public outreach campaign.

The current set of ads features several athletes who will compete in Vancouver, including: Bill Demong, Nordic combined; Hannah Teter, snowboarding; Shani Davis, speedskating; Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, pairs figure skating. In the ads, their faces peek through document picture windows, giving personality and purpose to the IDs. Being able to partner with the U.S Olympic Committee and work with the athletes on this effort enabled us to marry the creative treatment with global enthusiasm for the events, in a completely natural way,” Learned added.

I was really thrilled about being asked to participate in the WHTI advertising campaign and had a great time doing the spots with the people at Elevation. I was happy that I could help U.S. Customs and Border Protection tell the American people about the travel documents they will need to get home quickly after supporting Team USA in Vancouver,” explained Billy Demong, three time U.S. Olympian and medal hopeful for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.